Day Seven: Fue-Go! Fue-Go!

Chelsie (I had been misspelling her name all this time) had been planning the whole weekend for our housemates for the last few days.  This was going to be my only weekend to “do anything” (outside of Spanish lessons or volunteering) so it was kinda nice, especially with my limited Spanish abilities.

Last night I started borrowing the Internet from Dennis – so much more convenient than dragging my laptop to the Maximo office.  I sent a note to Noga on where/how to meet everyone for tonight’s trip to see Fuego, one of the active volcanoes in the area. 

In the morning, though, Chelsie had planned for a few of us (Sue, Chelsie, and myself) to go on a bike ride through 7 of the 12 villages around Antigua.  Sarah was out at the beach until the evening, and Dennis was not up for riding a bike for 17 miles (28km).  A couple from Chicago joined our “bike tour” group.

My “high-end” bike! Better than my Walmart bike for sure! 

“This bike is for competition use only!” 

Coffee beans! 

Every village entry is marked by a church and a cross.

In one village, we visited a “unique” place where “women do manual labor (ironwork)”.

One village had one of those huge outdoor “laundering/washing” places with… “of course,” all women…

You can see the volcanoes from many places.  Fuego is on the left!

We also visited the original, original capital of Guatemala.  The one before Antigua - and walked around.  They were preparing for a festival that was opening tomorrow (Sunday).

We also got to stop by a local Macadamia Nut farm – Valhalla Macadamia.  These Macadamia trees they had imported and growing is helping the Guatemalan people in many ways.

They had the “most photographed toilet in the world” and free massages with Macadamia oil. 

The last village we stopped at was San Antonio – I started recognizing the roads and we passed the childcare where I volunteer.  Then we stopped by a market in the village before heading back home to Antigua for lunch.

We rode through some extremely poor neighborhoods…

Way too many stray dogs…

What did we get for completing the bike tour?   A used water bottle…

The most amazing guacamole.  Seriously.

After lunch, Sue, Chelsie, and I decided to go hang out for a “drink” before (attempting to) go to the market.

On our way back, we watched a parade/festival that was starting at Central Park.  For what?  We had no idea…

We were having dinner at 6pm at the house, so we can be ready to go to see Volcano “Fuego” – we were to be picked up around 7pm, so we had told others (not in our homestay) to meet us outside our place around 6:45pm.  We were expecting Sarah to get back home around 6pm, but she had not arrived by 6:45pm.

As I got outside around 6:50pm, I met Chelsie’s friend David, an actor from LA (raised in Minnesota).  He initially called me the “athlete” – based on Chelsie’s information that the 3 of us (Chelsie, Sue, and myself) successfully biked up a semi-steep hill on the last leg of the bike trip this morning, and my “Atlanta Half-Marathon” jacket.  I guess it’s still flattering to be called an “athlete” in your 40s – and it’s still a little weird to me, who was considered more of the nerd/geek growing up. 

A few minutes later, Sarah shows up, looking miserable with a bag of chips from McDonalds.  As Chelsie and I start telling her to run inside, get dressed, and come back out to go see Fuego with us, Sara tells us that she had been lying down all day from vomiting through the night because of food poisoning.  She had not enjoyed her day at the beach at all. 

Shortly after, the shuttle showed up to pick us all up: Sarah, Chelsie, David, Sue, Dennis, Olga, Olga’s granddaughter, and myself.

Sue had a much better “real” camera, so I’ll have to update the pictures one I get her photos – but watching Fuego spew lava out was absolutely amazing.  We watched from the base of Fuego for about 2 hours.

At the end of the evening, while getting off of the truck (that took us through a path to the bottom of Fuego) and transferring onto the shuttle to go home, I had somehow dropped my wallet on the truck bed.  Luckily, and somehow, they saw my wallet before I got into the shuttle.  Imagine that – losing my wallet – credit cards, debit card, drivers license – in Guatemala.  That would not have been fun.

Random information I learned today?  Chelsie also raises chickens and bees.